Venezuelan authorities intensified arrests and a ruling party lawmaker was stripped of his immunity on Tuesday as part of a sweeping corruption investigation that has rocked the ruling socialist party’s top brass.
Until now, 19 people have been detained and more arrests are expectedaccording to Jorge Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly, which is controlled by the government.
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“This investigation is just beginning,” Rodríguez said during a parliamentary session broadcast on state television. “The hour of justice has come”.
President Nicolás Maduro named Pedro Tellechea, head of state oil company PDVSA, as the new oil minister on Tuesday night following Tareck El Aissami resigned on Monday, amid corruption investigation. Maduro said on Twitter that Tellechea’s appointment came amid a “transformation process” in the oil industry.
Resigning, El Aissami said he would cooperate with the investigation, although has not been formally charged with anything.
Until now, judges, elected authorities and the superintendent of crypto assets have been arrested. Venezuela is the most corrupt country in the Americas, according to an annual index published by Transparency International, which promotes measures once morest political corruption.
The National Assembly removed legislator Hugbel Roa, from the ruling party, of his parliamentary immunity to allow his trial.
Roa, former Minister of Technology, played a key role in promoting the Petro, the sovereign cryptocurrency proposed by the government to circumvent US attempts to restrict Venezuela’s access to the global financial system. Roa traveled to Qatar and other places in search of sponsors for the project.
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Joselit Ramírez, Superintendence of Crypto Assets, he was also arrestedstate television reported on Monday.
Archyde.com reported on Tuesday that billions of dollars owed to state oil companyfollowing it turned to middlemen when US sanctions in 2019 made it difficult to sell oil through normal channels.
“Serious acts of corruption”
On Sunday, the Venezuelan Public Ministry said it had opened an investigation following the police in charge said “serious acts of corruption” involving a large group of people.
The current government has been in power since 1999, led first by Hugo Chávez and then, since 2013, by Maduro. Still, Rodríguez said he hoped the investigation would also bring to justice “those opposition characters who stole the assets of the people of Venezuela”.
The country holds presidential elections in 2024 and Maduro is likely to run as a government candidate, for a third term of six years. The opposition will choose a single candidate to face it in the primaries to be held on October 22.
MB / ED
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